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Union leaders say Southwest Airlines employee morale is low, want new contracts
Jun 19, 2014

By Terry Maxon, Dallas News

Ten union leaders at Southwest Airlines have sent a letter to chairman and CEO Gary Kelly telling him that employee morale at the Dallas carrier is the worst it’s ever been and that action is needed to restore the “magic.”

Kelly’s response: He thinks the magic is still there.

The remedy suggested by the labor leaders: Sign new contracts with the unions.

Kelly’s response: He’s committed to doing so, but new deals can’t hurt the airline’s competitiveness.

The unions’ letters were dated June 5, with Kelly’s response dated Thursday.

After outlining the problem, the labor officials had this suggestion.

“Can we get the magic back? Absolutely! On October 13, 2014 we will celebrate the end of the Wright Amendment and the beginning of a new future for Southwest Airlines. While this pivotal event in our history will be marked by the stroke of a clock, another can be marked by the stroke of a pen,” said the union leadership letter.

“What would make this event more momentous is labor and management standing united with signed contracts, ready to move forward and Kick Tail,” they added. “The message it will send Wall Street and our Customers will be loud and clear – Southwest Airlines is back and better than ever.”

While the airline has had strong profits and stock prices have soared, employees aren’t happy, Kelly was told.

“What concerns us greatly, however, is the rapid deterioration of our once-great Culture; morale has dropped to an all-time low,” the letter stated. “The strife between our unions and management has begun to resemble that of an air carrier facing bankruptcy when ultimately we are at a time that our morale should be at an all-time high.”

The letter was signed by all unions or union locals at Southwest except for Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents the carrier’s 10,000-plus flight attendants. Most of the groups are currently in negotiations with Southwest.

Boiling down his response, Kelly replied that as he talks to employees and hears from customers, he thinks things are still good.

I can also assure you we have the same interests at heart in regards to contracts. I am fully committed to signing agreements this year that are cost effective and reward our Employees for the great work they do, recognizing that we have the most generous contracts in the industry. Still, we must not sacrifice the future of the airline by rendering Southwest less competitive or sacrificing our precious Low-Fare Brand. As we have always done, we must consider how today’s decisions will impact tomorrow, if we truly want to secure Southwest’s future and to maintain job and financial security for our nearly 46,000 Employees.

Keep reading for the letter to Kelly, followed by Kelly’s response. (NOTE, Monday, June 16, 2014: Kelly’s letter has this wording: “Thank you for the thoughtful note. We should all be proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past few years. I credit our success to hard work, determination, good choices, and good execution.” When I originally typed it in, I mistakenly typed “good executives.” That caused an entirely different slant to the sentence, for which I apologize to Southwest and Gary Kelly.)


Labor leaders to Kelly

Mr. Gary C. Kelly
Chief Executive Officer
Southwest Airlines Co.
2702 Love Field Drive
Dallas, TX 75235

Re: Taking Stock in the Morale

Gary,

We would like to congratulate you on a record-breaking first quarter. It is truly remarkable that in such a tumultuous industry, we have been able to maintain our profitability. This has not been the case with many of our competitors, many of whom have not been as lucky over the past decade.

Accordingly, our stock price has risen impressively over the past year, and that is something of which we can all be proud. What concerns us greatly, however, is the rapid deterioration of our once-great Culture; morale has dropped to an all-time low. The strife between our unions and management has begun to resemble that of an air carrier facing bankruptcy when ultimately we are at a time that our morale should be at an all-time high. The Wall Street media is even beginning to notice, as evidenced by two articles recently written in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News. One quote from the Bloomberg article is particularly telling: “When things used to be so good, it’s hard for either shareholders or labor to concede that the magic is gone.”

Is the magic gone? To many, it would seem so. We once had a system so efficient that it was the envy of the industry. Now, with ramp staffing at minimum levels relying on mandatory double shifts, our operational performance is suffering. The delays that continue to plague us are leaving our Customer Service Agents overworked and unable to provide passengers the level of Positively Outrageous Customer Service that they deserve and expect. Holiday letters sent to our Employees by you and Mike Van de Ven made us all feel that we are liabilities to the bottom line, and not the assets that we were hired to be.

Can we get the magic back? Absolutely! On October 13, 2014 we will celebrate the end of the Wright Amendment and the beginning of a new future for Southwest Airlines. While this pivotal event in our history will be marked by the stroke of a clock, another can be marked by the stroke of a pen. What would make this event more momentous is labor and management standing united with signed contracts, ready to move forward and Kick Tail. The message it will send Wall Street and our Customers will be loud and clear – Southwest Airlines is back and better than ever.

The Southwest Culture is the reason that most of us thought of working here as a dream job when we were new hires. With our latest problems, we have thousands of AirTran employees who haven’t had an opportunity to see this Culture and enjoy it the way that we have in the past. What better time than now to make us all the start of something new, something stronger? With a shift back to our roots, where the Employee came first, the Customer second and the Investors third, you can be guaranteed that our old formula for success will not only still work, but it will work better than ever. You can rest assured that happy Employees will create even more demand for our Southwest product and the profits will certainly reflect that. Please stand with us and let’s get to work on what we all do best: Operating the world’s best airline.

/s/

Lyndon P. Heffernan, President, AMFA Local 11
Joel Behnken, President, AMFA Local 18
Eric Hambacher, President, AMFA Local 32
Jim Kinnerk, President, AMFA Local 4
Tom Higginbotham, President & Directing General Chairman, IAM District 142
Robert Clever, President, IBT Local 19
Mark Richardson, President, Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association
Mike Connor, President , TWU Local 550
Ron Sparks, President, TWU Local 557
Charles Cerf, President, TWU Local 555

AMFA: Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
IAM: International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
IBT: International Brotherhood of Teamsters
TWU: Transport Workers Union

Kelly’s response:

FROM: Gary Kelly
TO: [The presidents]
DATE: June 12, 2014
SUBJECT: Your Taking Stock in the Morale Letter

Thank you for the thoughtful note. We should all be proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past few years. I credit our success to hard work, determination, good choices, and good execution – as opposed to luck. Stable jet fuel prices have been a critical factor, too. While our competition has endured bankruptcies and job loss, we’ve continued to implement creative solutions to evolve our business and remain profitable. We’ve accomplished this great feat by working together, and I agree – it is truly remarkable. I appreciate and share your Spirit for this great Company, its vibrant Culture, and its continued success. The lion’s share of my life is dedicated to preserving our Culture and serving our People. As a Company, we invest more today in our Culture and People than ever before – an example of this can be seen in FORTUNE Magazine’s June 2 article titled “Coolest jobs in the Fortune 500.”

We are a high-profile Company. Media coverage of Southwest is overwhelmingly positive, but we certainly have our share of less than positive coverage. We can’t base the Company’s health assessment or the pulse of our Culture on media articles. It’s the conversations that I have with our Employees, the glowing letters that I received from Customers, and the many challenges that we conquer together, on a daily basis, that tell me the magic of this airline is alive and well. Like any successful Company, we continue to evolve – but our compass continues to point Southwest. We do many things differently today than we did 10, 20, or 30 years ago – we’ve been forced to shift our business to compete in a completely changed marketplace. And, in fact, you could say the same thing at any point in our history. But, we are the same Company at heart, with the same set of core values, the same Mission, and the same Purpose. That is, to connect our Customers to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel. We are the LUV airline, headquartered at Love Field, with the heart in our logo.

I can also assure you we have the same interests at heart in regards to contracts. I am fully committed to signing agreements this year that are cost effective and reward our Employees for the great work they do, recognizing that we have the most generous contracts in the industry. Still, we must not sacrifice the future of the airline by rendering Southwest less competitive or sacrificing our precious Low-Fare Brand. As we have always done, we must consider how today’s decisions will impact tomorrow, if we truly want to secure Southwest’s future and to maintain job and financial security for our nearly 46,000 Employees.

We are a Family at Southwest Airlines. And, like any Family, we must continue to communicate and work through challenges together. That’s nothing new – it’s always been the case, and it always will be. Ultimately, we all must work together toward the same goal of offering Customers low fares with outstanding Customer Service, and we must continue to face obstacles together. Our Company and our People’s future depend on it.

Taken from this link: http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2014/06/union-leaders-say-southwest-airlines-employee-morale-is-low-want-new-contracts.html/


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